A proposal to ban unauthorized camping in Denver’s city limits to deal with increasing numbers of homeless people sleeping on the streets has riled those on opposing sides of the issue even before the City Council has discussed the yet-to-be-filed measure.

“It’s a poor solution and is moving the problem instead of fixing or addressing the problem,” said Mary Robertson, a resident of Denver who is against the ban.

“It’s about time we did it; it’s already overdue,” said Councilman Charlie Brown, who supports the ban.

The proposed ordinance would effectively ban people from sleeping outside in public and in unauthorized private places within city limits.

The council is expected to discuss the measure for the first time Tuesday morning at a committee meeting.

Votes aren’t expected until later in April. Before then, expect plenty of public discourse.

Ann Hatzakis, who is living in temporary housing, would like the city to spend more time developing shelter space and providing services for mentally ill people than spending time on creating a camping ban.

“That ordinance is going to criminalize homelessness and possibly be used against people who are political dissenters,” Hatzakis said.

On the other side is Steve Weil, president of Rockmount Ranch Wear, who said he is tired of having to pick up human waste from the homeless who sleep on his property.

“When you go up and down the mall, sadly, the city has been taken over by homeless,” he said. “It hurts the quality of life here because no one else wants to go where these people are.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is investigating legal issues around the ban.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has produced a white paper on the “negative impacts of an urban camping ban in Denver.”

“Creating an urban camping ban would criminalize survival activities for persons experiencing homelessness,” the paper says. “It would force those without shelter into our neighborhoods and further out of sight.”

Meanwhile, city officials have already been developing policies with Denver’s Road Home, the city’s Department of Human Services and the Denver Police Department on how to implement the ordinance — calling it the CAM system.

CAM stands for contact, assess and mobilize to help the homeless.

The city plans a two-week training session for everyone who would implement the law.

Critics are questioning how the city plans to offer more shelter space and social services under current budget constraints.

Denver’s Road Home, a program set up in 2005 to end homelessness, is having to cut $100,000 from its budget. And the Department of Human Services faces a $14 million budget gap.

Amber Miller, spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Hancock, said the administration, council members and others are working to find resources in advance of the camping ban moving through council.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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